Borderlands 3 Arms Race Mode “Changes Everything” – Gearbox CEO

Gearbox Software has finished delivering story expansions for Borderlands 3 but isn’t necessarily done with DLC. Its next batch will feature new skill trees for the current Vault Hunters along with a brand new mode. In an interview with GameSpot, the development team finally revealed its name – Arms Race.

Lead level designer Graeme Timmins said that the goal of Arms Race is “to make the gun game in our game of millions of guns really matter. And I can talk about that game mode for hours. I’m so excited about it, but we’ll have to wait. I’ll say it’s got its own environment and just leave it at that.”

CEO Randy Pitchford also chimed in, hyping up Arms Race as being a “totally new game.” “I cannot wait until [we can] share more about this, until people can experience it. Because it’s fricking cool. It’s a totally new game. The way it feels to me, when I play it, it’s like, ‘Holy crap. This changes everything.’ And I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Though Gearbox is pretty cagey on what Arms Race is, it has clarified what it isn’t, which is a battle royale mode. It’s also something that hasn’t been seen before so it could possibly be a mix of several different genres. One thing is for sure – this isn’t for those interested in a more narrative-driven experience.

As Pitchford notes, “So I think some of the folks that maybe are only interested in narrative experiences, we might lose them. But the folks that love the RPG loot and love that gear fighting experience, and also maybe folks who play completely different games… I have a feeling some Call of Duty folks are going to turn their head and go, ‘Wait a minute. What’s this?’ Even some battle royale people are going to go, ‘That sounds interesting. I want to check that out.’ It’s not a battle royale game, though. So we’re not doing that.”

Time will tell, as usual, with the DLC releasing later this year. Borderlands 3 is currently available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC but will also launch for Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Four-player co-op split-screen will be possible on all those platforms but 4K/60 FPS is only for single-player mode on Xbox Series X and PS5. Stay tuned for more details on a release date in the coming weeks.